Closing summary
The Israeli military said on Tuesday an initial inquiry into its strike on a Gaza hospital that killed five journalists determined that troops had identified a camera “positioned by Hamas” in the area to observe its forces. Israeli forces struck Nasser hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 20 people including journalists who worked for Reuters, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera and others outlets.
The UN has demanded that Israel’s investigations into unlawful killings in Gaza, including its “double tap” bombing of Nasser hospital which killed 20 people, among them five journalists, yield results and ensure accountability. “There needs to be justice,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, the spokesperson for the UN’s human rights office, told reporters on Tuesday in Geneva. He added that the number of journalists killed in Gaza raised many questions about the targeting of media workers.
Mariam Abu Dagga, one of the Gaza-based journalists killed in the Israeli airstrike on Nasser hospital, has been described as “deeply passionate” by her peers. The 33-year-old photojournalist was killed when Israel bombed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Monday (25 August) and then struck the same spot again as rescuers and journalists rushed to help the wounded.
The Israeli security cabinet has begun its meeting, a spokesperson told The Times of Israel. The meeting has started at prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem. It was moved up to 4pm and is expected to finish by 7pm.
The death toll in Gaza has risen, with least 75 Palestinians, including 17 aid seekers, being killed in the last 24 hours according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. It said that the total death toll since 7 October 2023 has now risen to 62,819, with 158,629 people wounded.
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar has accused “left-wing” governments of trying to “force” Palestinian state on to Israel. During his first official visit to the US since taking office last year, he said at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York that the move would amount to “suicide”.
A human rights group says US military personnel could face legal liability for assisting Israeli forces who commit war crimes in Gaza. According to Human Rights Watch, direct participation by US forces since October 2023, including providing intelligence and involvement in coordination and planning makes the United States party to the conflict between Israel and Palestinian armed groups.
Protesters in Israel on Tuesday torched tyres, blocked highways and clamoured for a ceasefire that would free hostages still in Gaza, even as Israeli leaders moved forward with plans for an offensive which they argue is needed to defeat Hamas. The disruption came as Palestinians in Gaza braced for the expanded offensive against a backdrop of displacement, destruction and parts of the territory plunging into famine, AP reported.
Dutch airline KLM will resume flight services to and from Israel on 28 September, after suspending flights in June over security concerns. It will bring back the Tel Aviv to Amsterdam route once daily with a Boeing 737-900, which seats 188 passengers. The carrier took a one-year absence from flying to Israel, and only just reopened the route before shutting it down again on 13 June due to the closure of Israel’s airspace following Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are prepared to invest in an economic zone in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border, in hopes that it would create opportunities and jobs for members of the militant Hezbollah group and its supporters once they surrender – Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Tom Barrack, said. As reported by The Independent, Barrack took trips to Israel and Syria to discuss the situation in Lebanon after the Lebanese government said it would disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year. However, Hezbollah rejected this plan.
A public letter signed by 209 former EU ambassadors, senior diplomatic staff and ambassadors from EU nation states has been published today, calling for urgent action over Israel’s war in Gaza and unlawful actions in the West Bank. If the EU will not act collectively, member states must take steps individually or in smaller groups to support human rights and uphold international law, the letter says, laying out nine possible approaches.
Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that the country would not be joining other western nations in recognising Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September. Reuters reports that he was speaking at a joint news conference with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, who said last month that Canada planned to recognise the state of Palestine at the General Assembly, after similar announcements by France and Britain.
Ministers have approved plans to help a further 30 students to leave Gaza to take up places at UK universities next month, but their evacuation remains uncertain and dependent on Israel’s approval. It takes the total to 39, after a government commitment last week to work to secure the evacuation from Gaza of nine Chevening scholars with places at some of the UK’s leading universities.
Israel-based group Physicians for Human Rights has written to Israel’s government warning that orders to evacuate hospitals in Gaza City ahead of a planned Israeli offensive will be a “death sentence” for many patients. “The analysis shows that southern Gaza cannot accommodate additional patients,” PHR said in a letter sent on Monday to COGAT, the Israeli authority responsible for civilian affairs in Gaza.
Iran has vowed to take “reciprocal action” after Australia expelled its ambassador over accusations that Tehran was behind antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (Asio) had “credible intelligence” to believe that the Iranian government was behind the attacks against the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne and Lewis’s Continental Kitchen in Bondi in Sydney last year.
He also announced that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps would now be listed as a terrorist group.
But Iran hit back on Tuesday and pledged to take “reciprocal action”. It also said that Albanese was weak and was only taking the action to compensate for a tougher recent line on Israel.
Israel hit Gaza’s Nasser hospital twice, killing at least 20 people including five journalists, health officials said.
The first strike hit the top floor of a building at the Nasser hospital, killing the Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri and others.
Iran’s involvement in clandestine violence and espionage overseas takes many forms, but all have a single aim – to win advantage for Tehran by striking unexpectedly at the “soft underbelly” of enemies.
It’s a strategy that dates back to the 1979 revolution, and is rooted in a pragmatic if regretful assessment of Iran’s continuing weakness on the conventional battlefield.
Australian authorities have not revealed exactly what convinced them that Iran was behind a series of antisemitic attacks in the country in recent months, but the charge is plausible, experts say.
“We don’t know the full details, but the Australians wouldn’t [publicly blame Iran] unless they were pretty confident,” said Matthew Redhead, an expert in state threats and intelligence at London’s Royal United Services Institute.
“Iran sees this as a cheap way of fighting an undeclared war against its opponents and of rallying audiences its wants to impress in the Middle East … They don’t have the resources to fight any other way. There is a long history here.”
Israeli military says initial inquiry on Gaza hospital strike showed 'Hamas camera' set up in vicinity
The Israeli military said on Tuesday an initial inquiry into its strike on a Gaza hospital that killed five journalists determined that troops had identified a camera “positioned by Hamas” in the area to observe its forces.
Israeli forces struck Nasser hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 20 people including journalists who worked for Reuters, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera and others outlets.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said later on Monday that Israel deeply regretted what he called a “tragic mishap”.
Protesters in Israel on Tuesday torched tyres, blocked highways and clamoured for a ceasefire that would free hostages still in Gaza, even as Israeli leaders moved forward with plans for an offensive which they argue is needed to defeat Hamas.
The disruption came as Palestinians in Gaza braced for the expanded offensive against a backdrop of displacement, destruction and parts of the territory plunging into famine, AP reported.
It also followed deadly strikes a day earlier on Gaza’s main hospital which killed 20 people including medics and journalists. Among them was Mariam Dagga, a journalist who worked for the Associated Press.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to convene a security cabinet meeting later Tuesday. However, the government said the meeting will not include discussion of ceasefire talks, according to an official with knowledge of the situation.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the matter, said there was a delegation from Egypt in Israel on Monday and they discussed the negotiations.
Ministers have approved plans to help a further 30 students to leave Gaza to take up places at UK universities next month, but their evacuation remains uncertain and dependent on Israel’s approval.
It takes the total to 39, after a government commitment last week to work to secure the evacuation from Gaza of nine Chevening scholars with places at some of the UK’s leading universities.
Chevening scholarships are largely government funded and are offered to “exceptional individuals” to study for a one-year master’s degree at a UK university. All 40 students identified by the government have fully funded scholarships.
A Home Office source said it was “a complex and challenging task”. Names would have to be submitted to the Israeli authorities for approval, after which the students would travel to a third country, likely to be Jordan, for visa biometric checks, which are not currently available in Gaza.
Campaigners for the students welcomed the news, but expressed concern that the latest group had received no direct contact from the government or been given details of what might happen next, while others with full funding appeared not to have been included.
The Israeli army has raided the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, triggering clashes with Palestinian youths.
Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, reported that the army detained at least three people after raiding a currency exchange shop.
Israel-based group Physicians for Human Rights has written to Israel’s government warning that orders to evacuate hospitals in Gaza City ahead of a planned Israeli offensive will be a “death sentence” for many patients.
“The analysis shows that southern Gaza cannot accommodate additional patients,” PHR said in a letter sent on Monday to COGAT, the Israeli authority responsible for civilian affairs in Gaza.
“Hospital capacity across the Gaza Strip is already at maximum. This makes the safe transfer of patients from Gaza City hospitals to southern medical centers impossible.”
There are no permanent hospitals in Rafah, just a field hospital. Al Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis -- which was attacked yesterday -- is already operating at 180 percent capacity and faces ongoing shortages, the letter said.
Field hospitals run by international organisations in Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis and Al-Mawasi have limited equipment and face risks of closure.
The letter called for an immediate halt to evacuations, and for the delivery of humanitarian aid and medical equipment.
Physicians for Human Rights last month said Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, citing the “deliberate, cumulative, and ongoing dismantling of Gaza’s healthcare system”.
‘There needs to be justice,’ UN tells Israel after Gaza hospital bombing
The UN has demanded that Israel’s investigations into unlawful killings in Gaza, including its “double tap” bombing of Nasser hospital which killed 20 people, among them five journalists, yield results and ensure accountability.
“There needs to be justice,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, the spokesperson for the UN’s human rights office, told reporters on Tuesday in Geneva. He added that the number of journalists killed in Gaza raised many questions about the targeting of media workers.
On Monday, Israel struck Nasser hospital, the last functioning public hospital in southern Gaza, twice. Witnesses said the second strike came just as rescue crews and journalists arrived to evacuate the wounded 15 minutes after the first bombing, killing first responders and media workers.
The “double tap” strike killed journalists working for Reuters, Associated Press and Al Jazeera, as well as independent journalists. It drew global condemnation. All three publications issued statements mourning the journalists, and urged Israel to look into the killings.
The office of the Israeli prime minister said it “deeply regrets the tragic mishap” that happened at the hospital and that the Israeli military was conducting an investigation.
The UN spokesperson urged Israel to ensure its investigation led to results, referring to recent Israeli military investigations that were closed without resolution.
The Israeli security cabinet has begun its meeting, a spokesperson told The Times of Israel.
The meeting has started at prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem. It was moved up to 4pm and is expected to finish by 7pm.
The security cabinet will discuss the next phases of the IDF’s operation in Gaza City, and the forum is expected to approve of plans.
According to local sources, the cabinet will not discuss the hostage release and ceasefire plan that Hamas accepted last week.
Hamas said in a statement on Sunday that Israel’s plans to take over Gaza City showed it wasn’t serious about a ceasefire. It said a ceasefire would be the “only way” hostages would be released.
Updated
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are prepared to invest in an economic zone in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border, in hopes that it would create opportunities and jobs for members of the militant Hezbollah group and its supporters once they surrender – Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Tom Barrack, said.
As reported by The Independent, Barrack took trips to Israel and Syria to discuss the situation in Lebanon after the Lebanese government said it would disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year. However, Hezbollah rejected this plan.
Now, Barrack said something needs to replace conflict in the area, according to The National.
“We have to have a substitute for what happened, because there is another outside party,” he said, referring to Iran.
“Iran has been the financier of the growth of Hezbollah, both its municipality and its militia. So how do we substitute that?” he asked.
“We bring in the Gulf countries simultaneously and a new economic zone, which will have some depth to it in the next few weeks.”
German chancellor says country will not join other western nations in recognising Palestinian statehood
Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that the country would not be joining other western nations in recognising Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.
Reuters reports that he was speaking at a joint news conference with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, who said last month that Canada planned to recognise the state of Palestine at the General Assembly, after similar announcements by France and Britain.
However, Merz said that Germany would not be following. “The position of the federal government is clear, as far as the possible recognition of the state of Palestine is concerned,” Merz said.
“Canada knows this. We will not join this initiative. We don’t see the requirements met.”
More than 140 nations have joined the call for international recognition of a Palestinian state, which is around three-quarters of all United Nations members.
Mariam Abu Dagga, one of the Gaza-based journalists killed in the Israeli airstrike on Nasser hospital, has been described as “deeply passionate” by her peers.
The 33-year-old photojournalist was killed when Israel bombed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Monday (25 August) and then struck the same spot again as rescuers and journalists rushed to help the wounded.
Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri; the Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Salam; the photojournalist Moaz Abu Taha, and Ahmad Abu Aziz from Quds Feed were also killed.
“Mariam had left us instructions not to cry for her when we bid her farewell. She wanted us to spend time with her body, speak to her and take our fill of her before she left,” said Samaheer Farhan, a 21-year-old freelance journalist and close friend of Dagga.
To her colleagues, she was known also for her kindness and dedication.
“Mariam was kind, gentle and deeply passionate about her work. She had lost her mother and her closest colleague, Abu Anas, yet she never stopped covering the war for even a single day,” Farhan said.
Independent Arabia said that she was the “example of dedication and professional commitment”, and praised her for carrying “her camera into the heart of the field, conveying the suffering of civilians and the voices of victims with rare honesty and courage”.
This comes as The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned Israel’s “broadcasted killing of journalists in Gaza”.
Read the full report by William Christou and Malak A Tantesh below.
Dutch airline KLM will resume flight services to and from Israel on 28 September, after suspending flights in June over security concerns. It will bring back the Tel Aviv to Amsterdam route once daily with a Boeing 737-900, which seats 188 passengers.
The carrier took a one-year absence from flying to Israel, and only just reopened the route before shutting it down again on 13 June due to the closure of Israel’s airspace following Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure.
The flight time is expected to bee extended by an hour to allow for a stop in Larnaca, Cyprus. This is to switch out crew members who are concerned about being in Israel during an ongoing war – The Times of Israel reports.
Public letter signed by senior diplomats calls for urgent action over Israel's war on Gaza
A public letter signed by 209 former EU ambassadors, senior diplomatic staff and ambassadors from EU nation states has been published today, calling for urgent action over Israel’s war in Gaza and unlawful actions in the West Bank.
If the EU will not act collectively, member states must take steps individually or in smaller groups to support human rights and uphold international law, the letter says, laying out nine possible approaches.
They include suspending arms export licenses, barring trade in goods and services with illegal settlements and barring European datacentres from receiving, storing or processing data from Israeli government or commercial sources if it relates to Israel’s “presence and activities in Gaza and elsewhere in the occupied territories”.
Signatories include 110 former ambassadors, 25 former director general and two of the most senior diplomats in the EU – Alain Le Roy, former secretary general of the European External Affairs service and Carlo Trojan, former secretary general of the European Commission.
“This struck a chord,” said Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, former EU representative to the Palestinian territory and part of a steering group of 6 former diplomats coordinating the initiative which began in mid-July.
This letter was the third public call for action, and the first calling for nations to act individually if the EU does not take collective action. A proposal to partly suspend Israel from the Horizon research fund over Gaza failed in late July.
“There is such dismay now within the institutions, people are saying enough is enough,” Kühn von Burgsdorff said.
“We can’t stay paralysed if the 27 (member states) can’t take action, that betrays our values. So we have proposed nine actions that can be taken at the state level or by groups of states.”
“European governments are losing credibility not just in the global south but with our own citizens, in every member state.” He cited polling from his native Germany, traditionally a staunch supporter of Israel, that showed 80 percent of the population disagree with Israel’s actions in Gaza and two-thirds want the government to take action.
A Norwegian wealth fund has sold Caterpillar, the construction equipment manufacturer, over Israel’s use of its bulldozers to destroy Palestinian property in Gaza and the West Bank.
The fund said it excluded Caterpillar and five Israeli banking groups on ethics grounds. “There is no doubt that Caterpillar’s products are being used to commit extensive and systemic violations of international humanitarian law,” said the fund’s independent council on ethics.
It also said the machinery was “being used by Israeli authorities in the widespread unlawful destruction of Palestinian property”.
“As deliveries of the relevant machinery to Israel are now set to resume, the council considers there to be an unacceptable risk that Caterpillar is contributing to serious violations of individuals’ rights in war or conflict situations,” it said.
The wealth fund has now removed more than 20 Israeli companies this year, but Caterpillar is the first big US company to be removed through the wealth fund’s ongoing review to ensure its investments do not contribute to violations of international law.
Israel's inquiry into hospital attack must yield actual results - UN official
The UN says that Israel must not only investigate alleged unlawful killings in Gaza like the hospital strike that killed 20 people, including journalists, the previous day, but also ensure those probes yield results.
“There needs to be justice,” United Nations rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told AFP in Geneva, adding that the large number of media workers killed in the Gaza war “raises many, many questions about the targeting of journalists”.
His comments came after an Israeli strike on the Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis on Monday killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, sparking an international outcry.
Reuters, the Associated Press and Al Jazeera all issued statements mourning their slain contributors, while the Israeli military said it would investigate the incident.
Kheetan added:
The Israeli authorities have, in the past, announced investigations in such killings.
It’s of course the responsibility of Israel, as the occupying power, to investigate - but these investigations need to yield results.
We haven’t seen results or accountability measures yet. We have yet to see the results of these investigations, and we call for accountability and justice.
He said at least 247 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war was triggered by militant group Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Updated
In case you missed it yesterday, my colleague Peter Beaumont has this analysis on why Israel’s attack on a hospital in Gaza may constitute a war crime on many fronts:
Israel’s twin strike on the Nasser hospital in Gaza, which killed five journalists including staff working for the Associated Press, Reuters and Al Jazeera, is a potential violation of international law writ large.
The attack targeted a civilian building, specifically a hospital, in a reckless double-tap strike that killed civilians, with rescue workers and journalists among them. All categories that should be protected under international law.
While the Israel Defense Forces, which have killed about 200 journalists already in the Gaza war, immediately attempted to suggest the killing of civilians had been in error, the reality is that it appears to be policy and not a mistake.
What is striking about this incident is that each individual element – the targeting of a working hospital, of journalists and rescue workers, of civilian injured already under treatment – would be expected to draw accusations of a war crime in its own right.
Taken together it points to something far darker, a “horrific” incident in the words of the British foreign secretary, David Lammy.
Read on here:
• This article was amended on 26 August 2025. Initial reporting said one of the five journalists killed worked for NBC. This is not the case and the reference has been removed.
Updated
The death toll in Gaza has risen, with least 75 Palestinians, including 17 aid seekers, being killed in the last 24 hours according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
It said that the total death toll since 7 October 2023 has now risen to 62,819, with 158,629 people wounded.
This comes after international condemnation of the killing of at least 20 people, including five journalists, after Israel struck Nasser hospital in Gaza on Monday (25 August).
Israeli security cabinet set to discuss hostage release deal and Gaza
Israel’s prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet at 4pm to discuss the situation in Gaza and potential plans to reach a hostage release deal.
Netanyahu’s office told The Times of Israel that the meeting will take place, but it did not clarify whether raise the ceasefire and phased hostage-release proposal that Hamas said it accepted last week. However, local Hebrew media reports that it is not on the agenda.
This comes as Israeli defence minister Israel Katz has vowed to press on with the offensive against Gaza City, according to The Independent. He said be razed unless Hamas agrees to end the war on Israel’s terms and release all hostages.
Hamas said in a statement on Sunday that Israel’s plans to take over Gaza City showed it wasn’t serious about a ceasefire. It said a ceasefire would be the “only way” hostages would be released.
Updated
A human rights group says US military personnel could face legal liability for assisting Israeli forces who commit war crimes in Gaza.
According to Human Rights Watch, direct participation by US forces since October 2023, including providing intelligence and involvement in coordination and planning makes the United States party to the conflict between Israel and Palestinian armed groups.
The group argue that US forces could be “jointly responsible for participating in laws-of-war violations by Israeli forces, and US personnel implicated could be held individually responsible for war crimes.”
“International law holds a country legally complicit when it knowingly assists another nation to commit serious laws-of-war violations and other abuses,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch.
“The US public should know that US weapons provided to Israel are directly enabling atrocities in Gaza, deeply entangling the United States in the laws-of-war violations that Human Rights Watch and others are documenting.”
Updated
Israeli hostage families block roads to call for release of relatives
Families are demanding the Israeli government enter an agreement with Hamas to end the war and secure the release of the hostages still held in Gaza. Major roads, including Route 1 and Route 443, both of which connect Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, were closed on Tuesday by the protests.
Updated
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar has accused “left-wing” governments of trying to “force” Palestinian state on to Israel.
During his first official visit to the US since taking office last year, he said at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York that the move would amount to “suicide”.
As Times of Israel reports, he said: “Left-wing governments in various countries, including France, Britain, Canada, and Australia, are trying to force a Palestinian state on Israel.”
“Israel cannot allow this. For us, it would be an act of suicide,” he says, then accusing western capitals of “trying to build momentum” through their recently announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state.
Elsewhere in the briefing, Sa’ar also said that Israel stands in a strategically better than it did two years ago, from a military standpoint. He also noted “the Iranian axis that militarily surrounded Israel has been greatly weakened.”
“What was once a military siege is now turning into an attempt at a political siege of the State of Israel, with a clear goal: to force a Palestinian state upon us,” he added.
Here are some of the latest images from Gaza:
All roads across Israel have now reopened after a morning of protests, according to local police.
A statement from police said: “Freedom of protest and expression is not freedom to harm many others’ freedom of movement.
“Blocking roads without permission and in a manner that may endanger road users or harm citizens’ freedom of movement will not be allowed.”
This comes after there was a planned national “day of struggle”, planned by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in hopes of securing a deal to free the captured. The day began at 6.29am, the time Hamas launched its 7 October attack, and saw protesters close down highways and block pavements outside politician’s homes.
Major roads were closed across the country, including sections of Route 1 and Route 443, both of which connect Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Opening summary
Hello, we are restarting our live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis.
The killing of at least 20 people, including five journalists, after Israel struck Nasser hospital in Gaza on Monday (25 August) has sparked international condemnation.
Reuters cameraperson Hussam al-Masri, photographer Mohammed Salama, who worked for Al Jazeera, and photojournalist Moaz Abu Taha were among those killed.
Victims on the fourth floor of the hospital were killed in a double-tap strike with one missile hitting first. Another strike hit as rescuers began to arrive, according to health officials.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claimed the strike was a “tragic mishap” – and said that the military will investigate the incident.
Meanwhile, Canada said it is “horrified” by the Israeli strikes on Nasser hospital, with the foreign ministry posting on X saying “Israel has the obligation to protect civilians, including journalists and healthcare workers, operating in Gaza.
“Canada urges an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the protection of civilians, the unconditional release of the remaining hostages, and scaled-up UN-led humanitarian aid which can pass freely to those in need.”
This comes as mass protests are being planned in Tel Aviv, as the The Hostages and Missing Families Forum are lead a national “day of struggle” today (26 August) with the aim of securing a hostage release deal.
The Times of Israel reports that protesters have blocked highways, with some pitched outside the homes of government ministers. In Ness Ziona, people are reading out the names of the hostages outside the home of foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar.
Elsewhere, demonstrators block pavement outside the home of economy minister Nir Barkat with long strings of hostage posters.
Relatives of the captured gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to deliver speeches for the day’s press conference. “We have a wonderful people but no government … The government has abandoned, but the people will bring them back!” said Einav Zangauker, mother of Matan Zangauker, Al Jazeera reports.
In other developments:
Amnesty International says the Israeli military destruction of civilian property in southern Lebanon should be investigated as a war crime, AFP reports. “The Israeli military’s extensive and deliberate destruction of civilian property and agricultural land across southern Lebanon must be investigated as war crimes,” Amnesty’s statement reads.
Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese has accused Iran of being behind a pair of 2024 antisemitic attacks. At a press conference in Canberra, Albanese said the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) “has now gathered enough credible intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion that the Iranian government directed” at least two of the recent attacks on Australia’s Jewish community.
Australia has now announced it will suspend Tehran’s ambassador and is pulling diplomats from Iran. It also plans to pass legislation to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror group.
• This post was amended on 26 August 2025. Initial reporting said Moaz Abu Taha worked for NBC. This is not the case and the reference has been removed.
Updated
